The National Guard was deployed to Washington, D.C., and reportedly may be sent to other cities. But wherever Americans live, it is speaking to larger issues – ranging from crime and their safety, to rights and freedoms and their views on the powers of a president.
Those in favor of President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to cities are largely in his Republican base and say it reduces crime, feel it makes them personally safer — even if they don’t live in cities — and that in principle they’d support deployment to other U.S. cities.
The majority of Americans are opposed, though, and those who are, tend to feel their own rights and freedoms would be less secure as a result. They do not think it would be effective at reducing crime or make them any safer.
To those in favor, it’s not a case of red-versus-blue cities. They’d support the Guard being sent to either Democratic- or Republican-led places, or coming to their own local area as well.
To those opposed, they believe the president is acting out of politics more than crime prevention.
People who live in cities generally oppose the idea of sending troops to other cities and Americans in rural areas are mostly in favor of sending the Guard to other cities. Opinion is more tied to partisanship than geography, though.
The people who think the presence of the National Guard does reduce crime, but still oppose the deployment to Washington or elsewhere, tend to see Trump acting for political reasons, not just crime prevention.
The bulk of Americans, wherever they stand on this deployment, think in principle, both the president and a local leader like a mayor or governor should have the authority to deploy the National Guard. Fewer — including a lot of those opposed — think it should be only a local leader. Very few think it should be only Donald Trump.
Approval ratings
The policy on which one judges a president can of course affect the overall evaluation of him.
Republicans, and Trump’s supporters overall, say they’re judging him on immigration and deportation policy more than on his economy and inflation policies; that topic, plus crime, together far outpaces inflation and the economy as their most important metric.
Of late, the deployments may have the political effect of focusing on matters other than inflation, at least for the president’s political base. And that in turn has helped his overall numbers a bit.
His Republican approval now ticks back up over 90%, and his overall approval has stabilized, up two points now, after steadily declining over the weeks and months of his term.
Meanwhile, those judging him on economic and inflation policies don’t approve of him overall or on the matter of inflation, specifically.
The relatively small group of people who disapprove of him on inflation, but approve on immigration, mostly approve of him overall.
Tariffs
Economic matters remain tougher for Mr. Trump, as they have been. Many continue to say Trump’s policies have made them financially worse off.
Four in 10 Americans report buying fewer things because of tariffs.
Support for tariffs continues to drop incrementally, if steadily.
And as with many other items, support for tariffs is centered in the Republican and MAGA political base, but not elsewhere.
That extends to a call for some financial sacrifice, too. Seven in 10 Republicans say Americans should be willing to pay more for what they buy to support Trump’s trade policies. This is true for Republicans across income levels.
On balance, people overall are mixed about the potential impact on manufacturing jobs. Relatively more do think the tariffs will lead to manufacturing jobs more than will lead to losses, and Republicans are also the most likely to think this.
Views of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act remain underwater and its approval rating is unchanged from July, shortly after it was signed into law.
The Fed
Most Americans continue to call for a Federal Reserve that operates independently of what Donald Trump wants.
Unlike matters related to immigration or the National Guard, there is a bit of difference within the GOP ranks. MAGA Republicans specifically would like the Fed more under Trump’s guidance than non-MAGA Republicans. Nor would all Republicans have Trump replace Fed members who disagree with him.
Trump’s approach
All of these matters also speak to questions of executive power and how it is applied.
In all, as a general description, people tend to like Trump’s goals relatively more than his approach.
In general, two-thirds of Americans feel Donald Trump is trying to increase the powers of a president. That’s not collectively what they’d want; most would say not to change those powers.
And while Democrats see an approach they’d describe as Trump trying to bring the federal government more under his direct control, Republicans describe him trying to make it work more efficiently.
Kabir Khanna contributed data weighting and analysis to this report.
This CBS News/YouGov survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,385 U.S. adults interviewed between September 3-5, 2025. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to gender, age, race, and education, based on the U.S. Census American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, as well as 2024 presidential vote. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.
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